They Watched Us

“Jordan! Jordan! Bring your ass in this kitchen.” Mama yelled as she wiped the sweat off her chocolate-wrinkled forehead. Jordan peeked his head into the kitchen, the dandruff from his scalp fell like little snowflakes onto the white and black marble floor. Mama groaned and grabbed a necklace off the kitchen table. It was long, rusted, and the emerald heart-shaped locket twinkled in the thin sunlight that trespassed into the family’s small two-bedroom apartment. “I have told you and your sister to not play with your grandmother’s necklace. Y’all have been watching too many damn Harry Potter movies and think every little item is a toy. This ain’t magic. Your grandmother protected this necklace like her own child. She gave it to me when I was old enough, and now, I hope I could do the same with you kids. Until then, you and your sister need to keep your scrawny hands out of my dresser. Now, go outside and get Bria, dinner will be ready in a few.”

3 years later.

“I got something! Yo, look at this.” Jordan says as he is reeling in the fishing line from the dark and murky water. Bria appears on the side of him and places a white bucket down. She stands up straight, stretching her frail arms, twisting her neck back and forth, each vertebrae aligning as it should. Jordan finally reels out his specimen. His lanky body plops on the grass, the sun shines on him, not illuminating his beautiful melanin, but exposing the sharp edges of his sunken face and soft abrasions. He resembled a rag doll that has been passed down at least 3-generations. Bria retreats to the shadow under a tree as her large afro is the only thing that touches the light.

“What is it?” Bria says squinting as her lips sulk at the thought of food being put in her mouth. “A fucking...baseball cap,” Jordan says, “We’re going to have to call it a day.” Bria stomps across the grass knocking down a few anthills. “Can’t you just reel it in again. I am tired of searching for scraps in random houses. Let us go to the city. I heard there were mad supplies over there.” Jordan remains silent. The crows, or what they used to be, fly above their heads, circling the siblings, using their bulging parasitic eyes to analyze the young people. Jordan and Bria watch the zombified crows circling them. Then, he says “The city is too dangerous. We do not know what is out there. And besides, I can’t risk losing you.”

Bria scoffs. She says “Jordan, look at us. We might as well be declared dead because you see my ribs. I’m a fucking xylophone!”

Jordan packs away his fishing gear, grabs the white bucket, and begins walking down a dirt path. Bria follows behind him. “Hey,” Bria says, “Gerald said that he knows someone who could take us to the city. We can travel through the subway-”

“STOP!” Jordan yells. He continues “I don’t care what Gerald has to say. WE are not going to the city. The plan is to keep going north and to stay away from the cities. And the last time we went to the city we lost-”

“Mom. I get it.” Bria says as she walks ahead of him silently.

Jordan catches up to her, places his hand on her shoulder, and says “I know this isn’t the life we imagined a few years ago. I remembered you wanted to join your school’s stepping team and I wanted to play basketball. I don’t know if Mama would have had enough money to support both of us, but she’d always find a way. You still got that locket?”

Bria pulls out the heart-shaped locket from her pocket. Jordan opens the locket, dirt particles flutter to ground, and he reads the poem out loud. He says:

“With this light, I’ll pass it on to you.

To keep our history going, one must protect it.

With this light, I’ll pass it on to you.

You will pray for me, and I will pray for you.

With this light, you have my protection.

I am always here. In your heart.

With this light, I live through you.

- Love, Grandma Gene”.

There was a carving inside of the locket underneath Grandma Gene that says, “and Mama.”

Jordan closes the locket and hands it back to Bria. They both walk with their heads low into the woods.

The fire twirls and bend at intense angles, snapping back at anyone who tries to disturb its peace, and startling the needle shaped pale girl who tried to add more wood to the raging flames. Jordan and Bria place their belongings down by the campfire. “Phoebe, I think it’s enough wood.” Jordan says. He motions for Phoebe to step away from the fire. “Okay,” she says, “so, did you guys catch some fish?” Bria awkwardly glances at Jordan, but before she could respond, he says “No, but we got our first inning.” He tosses the baseball cap towards Phoebe. She picks the soggy baseball cap, flipping it on its side, gliding her bruised finger along the stitching, and peeling away the embroidered Yankees logo. Then, she tosses it into the fire. “My Dad used to love the Yankees.”

A young man, around the same build as Jordan, yet has a little more muscle than him appears from the shadows of the woods as the bushes rattles at his vibrations. His hair is cut low, but it has little grains of dirt and dandruff that resembles a dirty kabuki brush. He walks with ease as he takes his time to step over rocks, in between branches, and finally sits down with the others. His smile can warm the hearts of many, his skin looks like a fresh macchiato drink from Starbucks, and his energy is so inviting that even the fire points his ways illuminating his entire face. This is Gerald.

“Wassup everybody. Another hungry night?” Gerald says with a slight smile on his face.

Phoebe sits next to him, brushing her leg on his, and says “Jordan didn’t catch any fish. We don’t know what to do about the food and it’s been days.”

Gerald nods his head, but his tense shoulders, and tight jaw suggests that he’s thinking about something. “The food is definitely an issue. I was able to meet up with some other people and they said the city is full of the supplies and food that we need.” Bria whispers to Jordan “I told you so.” Gerald continues, “I was thinking that tonight could be our last night over here, we can meet up the people I spoke to, and figure out how we’re going to get into the city.” The hairs on the back of Jordan’s neck rises. He says “We’re going to get killed if we go to the city. We barely have any weapons to protect ourselves.”

Phoebe raises her voice at Jordan and says “That’s exactly the point! We barely have shit to hold up for any longer and we’re all hungry. I’m sure the people that Gerald spoke to isn’t going to do us dirty. Right Gerald?” Gerald adjusts his body and shifts away from Phoebe. He says “These people have been living in the woods just as long as us. They know the city because they been to the city.” The fire reflects in everyone’s eyes and grows a little when Jordan stands up. Jordan says, “But did they lose people?” Gerald stood up as well and levels out with him in height. Jordan continues “I have a sister to worry about. We can find another lake or pond or whatever. We can eat the animals out here-”

“Which animals? The ones that got freshly bit or the ones that are completely deformed and not right for consumption?” Gerald retorts.

“Bria and I aren’t going to the city,” Jordan says, “we’ll meet up with the people you met, but we ain’t going.”

Gerald’s brows begin to twitch rapidly up and down. “We need to stick in numbers! We need more water, more food, more aid, more everything. The fuck we look like staying the woods. What we need is in the city. I know in the movies that shit is dangerous to be at but we gotta make tough decisions. We can go through the city, get what need, continue through the subways until we reach land-we’ll continue North.”

“We can lose people!” Jordan shouts.

“And you think we ain’t lost nobody?!,” Gerald says, “Phoebe lost her parents, y’all lost your mama, and I lost my whole family to these flesh-eating motherfuckers too. We all lost someone, so I get it, but we can’t keep acting scared as if we haven’t been dealing with this shit for three years now.”

Jordan becomes quiet and sits down. Gerald storms off. Phoebe follows behind him. Bria sits next to Jordan and tries to comfort him. “Are you okay?” Bria says laying her head on his shoulder. Jordan shrugs his shoulders, and she lifts her head up. Jordan tells her “I’m not mad at him. I’m just mad that we must go back to the place where Mama died. I can’t relive that.”

“I lost Mama too,” Bria continues, “but Gerald is right. What we need is over there. Right now, all we have is each other and I always worry about losing you bro, but I know we’re safe because we have Mama’s locket. Mama and Grandma Gene is up there watching over us. We’re protected.”

The fire starts to dim and casts a shadow over them. Jordan starts adding more wood to the fire. He says “Alright, I hear you. When we go to the city, I need you to be always by my side. Don’t be like those girls in the movies tripping over air and shit.” Bria laughs.

A few hours passed, Gerald and Phoebe hadn’t returned. Jordan and Bria are asleep by the dwindling fire. A young woman’s scream is heard from the distance in the woods. Jordan grabs a pocketknife from his sack and points it the trees in front of him. His eyes were too droopy to focus on anything in front of him. Phoebe runs towards Jordan, pushes him aside, and falls to the ground. Bria tries to lift her to her knees but Phoebe sways her away crawling to a tree curling up like hair coil touching water. “Phoebe! What happened? Where’s Gerald?”

Phoebe turned around and her jaw was chewed off. What remained left of this young woman’s pale face were her cloudy grey eyes, sharp nose, and strips of her dead blonde hair on her head. She was attacked. Bria hides behind Jordan. He angles the knife at her and the tears from his eyes slides down his cheeks. Phoebe murmurs “I’m…I’m sorry…” The real Phoebe died. Her body twitches violently and her eyes roll back into oblivion. Jordan knows he has to kill her, but the thought of killing someone again causes him to sweat at the palms of his hands. The deadly and villainous Phoebe lunges at Jordan grabbing him by his bony shoulders and plunges him to the ground. Blood and other substances splashes on him. He screams in so much terror and pain from the new weight of her body. He uses the knife to stab at Phoebe's chest and all that it does is anger her more. Bria nervously searches through the bags for a weapon and finds a gun in Phoebe's sack. Before she could turn around to make her shot, Gerald ambushes Phoebe to the ground, and severs her head with a machete. Then, he repeatedly stabs her in the head until there are no more sounds escaping her vocal cords. Bria drops the gun and runs to Jordan. She touches his face and arms. He’s okay. Gerald, without hesitation, says “We have to leave now.”